Support for pressure sensitive pen tablet

I have been struggling to get a Wacom Intuos working seamlessly with Qubes 4.0. I have a sys-usb qube, and I have xournalpp software running in a personal-drawing qube. The Wacom Intuous is attached to the computer via USB.

If I change /etc/qubes-rpc/policy/qubes.InputTablet to allow from sys-usb to dom0, then I am able to use the Wacom pen to control everything, including the mouse cursor. This does allow me to draw in the xournalpp program within the personal-drawing qube (and across any qube, including dom0). It also moves the cursor as I move the pen so I can see where I am going to draw. However, this method has a significant drawback because it does not allow the tablet to pass through the pressure values of the pen.

I have also tried attaching the Wacom tablet directly to the personal-drawing tablet. This does allow me to draw in the xournalpp program within the personal-drawing qube only. It also allows the pressure sensitivity to be used by the xournalpp program. However, it does not move the cursor as I move the pen, so I cannot see where I am about to draw.

From searching, it seems this is the most relevant comment on this topic, which describes what I am experiencing: issues with graphic tablet · Issue #2715 · QubesOS/qubes-issues · GitHub

Has anyone got a tablet pen working with Qubes that includes pressure sensitivity and the cursor being visible? If so, how?

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I know there are issues with the cursor not demonstrating state changes with web browsers, for reasons having to do with generalized GUI capabilities. @Demi could this be related?

I think the issue I’ve had was fixed for 4.1 so don’t know if this would be fixed in 4.1, too.

@leaningtrees curious if it might work in 4.1 with sys-gui, which would be much safer than doing qubes.InputTablet through dom0, on an aside.

Unfortunately I’m depending on this machine for work, so I’m not currently able to use it to test with 4.1 and sys-gui. If I get another machine to test with I’ll report back my findings.

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I’m having the exact same issues trying to set up a drawing tablet in Qubes 4.0.4: if I change qubes.InputTablet I can use the pen to move the cursor but it doesn’t allow pressure sensitivity. Most importantly, since I have multiple screens, I can’t use xsetwacom to assign the pen to a specific screen, which is even more of a dealbreaker. If I don’t change the policy I can do all these things but I don’t get to see a cursor…Krita draws its own cursor in the drawing area, but Xournal++ doesn’t.

I am not familiar with qubes.InputTablet, but I would not be surprised if it simply does not support pressure — yet. Adding support would be both possible and highly desirable. It should be possible to use qubes.InputTablet directly from sys-usb to personal-drawing, without having to compromise dom0.

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Is it possible to use some program that highlights the cursor/its position? Or a script.

On a fedora template/AppVM I once used an app called something like “Wacom finder” and was able to configure and test my tablet, and it did seem to read the pressure sensor.

I used one of the standard drawing apps to test it out, but I did not take notes on which app. I have not had the luxury of time to really kick it around. I never used a tablet before so when I say “it worked” please take that with a grain of salt. I just know it varied the width of the line with the amount of pressure applied with the pen onto the tablet.

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